Prepare for a historical event - JW3's first-ever Jewish pantomime is coming this winter!

It’s Chanukah, the Jewish festival of light, and Little Red Riding Hood’s village is in need of a new energy source, at an affordable price. 

Join us for an unforgettable journey from the Edge of Ware to Gants on the Hill as Red Riding Hood goes on a quest to save her Bubbah from the Big Bad Pig. Along with a couple of new friends and her mum, Dame Hoodman, can they thwart the plans of the evil hog?

This is not just any pantomime - it's a Jewish pantomime, featuring all the tradition of Panto with Jewish storytelling. Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Pig is traditional Pantomime magic at its best, with classic panto favourites including: sloshing buckets, getting lost in the woods, panto baddies and a catchy finale song sheet! You'll laugh, dance, sing along, and discover a whole new world of wonder, magic and vegetarian wolves. 

Bring the whole family, kids, grandparents, cousins and those uncles and aunts you only ever see at Seder nights.

This show is perfect for all ages and an experience you'll never forget. 

Coming for a celebration? Let us know here and maybe you'll get a little surprise at your show. 

Group Bookings

Buy 10 tickets online and you will only pay for 9 of them.

If you are looking to make a group booking of more than 25 tickets send us an email by clicking here.  

 

Relaxed Performance Dates

Relaxed performances are ideal for people with learning disabilities or autism, or anyone who would benefit from a more relaxed environment, these performances are of course still open for anyone to book. During our relaxed performances, we will be making the following changes:

  • House lights remaining switched on at a low level throughout the performance
  • Noise from the performance will be reduced throughout the performance
  • Reduced capacity to allow for freer movement around the audience space
  • No sudden flashes or lighting changes

Relaxed Performances will be shown on the following dates and times:

21 December, 10am
28 December, 3pm

Live Captioning

The following performances will include live captioning:

Saturday 6 January at 7.30pm
Sunday 7 January at 3pm

Gemma Barnett - Red

Gemma Barnett is an actor, writer and poet. 

Acting credits: The Invincibles Queens Theatre, The Beach House Park Theatre, After the Lavoiya Kiln Theatre,Three Glorious Days Mercury theatre,  A Hundred Words for Snow Trafalgar Studios (Off West-End Best Actress), Dr Korczack’s Example Leeds Playhouse.

She won the Poetry for Good prize and was featured on BBC Woman’s Hour. She was a winning finalist of BBC Words First in 2021. This year she was the commended performance poet in the Outspoken Prize for Poetry at Southbank Centre. Her work has been published by Verve Poetry Press and Propel magazine. 

TV / Film: Bridge (BBC commission dir. Tara Aghdashloo) Miss for Gold Mango Productions (Outstanding New Work – Indie Short Fest), Casualty BBC.

Debbie Chazen - Mother Hoodman

Film inc:  Finger Food, Sleepyhead, Red Joan, Topsy Turvy, Pops, Feeder, Ploey, The Duel, Suzie Gold, Beginners Luck, Tooth

TV inc: The Sister Boniface Mysteries, Dalgliesh, The Last Kingdom, Dodger,  Avenue 5, Urban Myths, Trollied, The Spa, Tittybangbang, Psychoville, Dr Who, Sherlock, The Smoking Room, Dead Pixels, Sticks and Stones, Holby City, Midsomer Murders, Nicholas Nickleby,  Agatha Raisin, Tess of the D’Urbevilles, We Are Klang, You, Me and the Apocalypse, Asylum, The Job  Lot, The Impressions Show, Ambassadors, Great Night Out, Doc Martin, Murder in Suburbia, Mine All Mine, This Is Jinsy, White Van Man, Uncle Max, The Estate Agents, Mile High, Grass, Doctors, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married, An Unsuitable Job For A Woman, Casualty, Coronation Street, Cynthia, The Bill, Eastenders, A Christmas Carol, Killer Net, The Lakes

Theatre inc:  Stills (JW3), Jews: In Their Own Words (Royal Court), Our Generation (The National and Chichester Festival Theatre), The Child In The Snow (Wilton’s Music Hall), Gin Craze! (Northampton Royal & Derngate), Am Dram the Musical (Queen Mary II Cruise Ship, The Other Palace, Leicester Curve), Rags (Park Theatre), Sitting (Hong Kong), Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare’s Globe), 3 Women (Trafalgar Studios), A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (Print Room), Calendar Girls The Musical (West End and tour - Oliver Award nomination, Best Actress in a Musical), Listen, We’re Family (JW3, Wilton’s Music Hall), Neko (The Kiln), Fred Karno’s Circus (Bristol Slapstick Festival), Calendar Girls the Play (West End and tour), The Duck House (Vaudeville Theatre), Love and Information, The Cherry Orchard (Sheffield Crucible), A Little Hotel On The Side (Bath Theatre Royal), Stephen Fry’s Cinderella (Old Vic), In Basildon, Untitled Matriarch Play, Mint, The President’s Come To See You, The Girlfriend Experience (The Royal Court), Mother Clapp’s Molly House, Beyond The Tracks (RSC), Crooked (The Bush), Phillip Pullman’s Aladdin (Bristol Old Vic), A Prayer for Owen Meany (The National Theatre),  Dick Whittington (Barbican), The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Salisbury Playhouse), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Aldwych), Frogs (Nottingham Playhouse)

Radio inc: Family Business, Yentl, Chinwag, The Pick Up, Giles Wembley-Hogg, Electric Ink, The Lucy Montgomery Variety Pack, The Roland Darvelle Hotel, Pub and Murder Guide, Another Case of Milton Jones, St Brice’s Day, Dinner Ladies

Debbie is also a jazz singer and songwriter, performing under the name The Brazen Ms Chazen.

 

Josh Glanc - Pig

Josh Glanc is a multi-award award winning Australian comedian.  His solo shows have enjoyed sold out seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Soho Theatre. Earlier this year he received 3 Green Room Award nominations for his show Vrooom Vrooom and performed at O2 Arena as part of Just For Laughs London. He has appeared on Australian television shows Comedy Up Late (ABC) and Skit Happens (Network Ten). He recently moved to London to pursue comedy.   

Lauren Silver - Wolf

Lauren is a clown and theatremaker from Liverpool. She is a Pleasance Associate Artist and trained in clown and comedy with Philippe Gaulier and Spymonkey’s Aitor Basauri.

Previous solo work includes SURPRISE! (Camden Peoples Theatre/VAULT Festival) and Get Ready with Me (Liverpool Everyman/Playhouse).

Additional theatre credits include Wilde Creatures (Vaudeville Theatre West End/Sydney Opera House), Beauty and the Beast: Rock & Roll Panto (Liverpool Everyman), The Snow Queen (Theatre by the Lake, Keswick); Come In! Sit Down! (Kiln Theatre); Robin Hood (The Dukes, Lancaster); Cinderella (Chipping Norton Theatre); I'm An Aristocrat, Get Me Out Of Here! (Gonzo Moose); The Games (Spike Theatre, Liverpool); The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (Lyceum, Edinburgh). Lauren is currently developing her new Jewish clown show, Broigus, for Autumn 2024, supported by Pleasance Theatre and Liverpool Everyman/Playhouse.

 

Tiago Fonseca - Bubbah

Tiago Fonseca is a multidisciplinary circus artist. He is specialised on physical comedy and clown. He has an extensive experience of working at a variety of scales, from intimate street show to Opera houses with audiences of thousands. Tiago’s practice has benefited from a wide range of contexts, Circus, Theatre, Television and Cinema. Including over the last few years performing with several celebrated German Opera Houses.

He was born in Lisbon in 1986 and had his first theatre experience with fifteen years when performing and touring with the amateur theatre group “Cegada”. At the age of eighteen he graduated from Chapitô, Performing Arts school in Lisbon and in 2009 he finished with a BA the university of circus in London "National Centre for Circus Arts”.

For the past 15 years Tiago has worked with Mattress Circus, Cirqualition Locale, Bureau of Silly Ideas, NoFit State Circus, he works with Emergency Exit Arts where he co-created the character of Doctor Kronovator, a fire Laboratory show still touring. Circadian, Imagineer, Artistokraten, Theatre Company 1927, Komischer Oper Berlin, Deutsche Oper am Rhein and Staatsoper Hannover. 

 

Yael Elisheva - The Bailiff (Understudy: Red, The Wolf, The Big Bad Pig)

Yael (they/them) is a theatre-maker, performer, and director. UK Stage credits include: Mycelial (Northern Stage, Open Clasp Theatre Company), Lead in In This Smoking Chaos (Queens Theatre, Hornchurch); King Berenger in Exit The King (RADA); Nils Krogstad in A Dolls House (RADA). They are a graduate of the RADA MA Theatre Lab.

Yael is a drag artist and comedian and can be seen at various venues throughout the UK. They performed their drag act "Aaron the Bar Mitzvah Boy" at Glastonbury Festival 2023. Their work draws from their experience within the Jewish religion.

Tracy Bargate - Ratticus the Rat Cab Driver (Understudy: Mother Hoodman, Bubbah)

Tracy trained in physical theatre and mime with Desmond Jones and also went to the Academy Whitechapel. She is now an actor in theatre and film, who occasionally dabbles in movement direction.  She also trained as a dramatherapist and works as a skills facilitator in corporate training. 

Tracy is loving returning to this story having acted in a previous, physical version of Red Riding Hood, where she played the Mother and the Wolf! (Theatre 503).

Her other plays include “3 Winters” (National Theatre), she has also been back there recently developing the new musical “On Tandle Hill” (National Theatre/Home); the No. 1 UK tour of Michael Morpurgo’s “Butterfly Lion” (Mercury Theatre - shortlisted for a TMA Award); the sold out immersive show “Code 20:24 (Secret Theatre); “The Snow Children” (Pop up Theatre - UK tour); “As You Like It” (New Vic); “Camino Real” (Young Vic); “She” (Soho Theatre); “Bed Among The Lentils” (Blackfriars Arts); “Measure for Measure” (Rosemary Branch);  the site specific “ A Christmas Carol” (Bath) and “No Goodnight Kiss” (Coram’s Fields); devised shows “Struck” (Finborough),  “Return for a Wedding” and “A Fish in Water” (both loosely based on Isaac Bashevis Singer stories) and “Filthy Dirty” (all at CPT), and the fully masked “Veil” (Horse & Bamboo – UK tour). 

Last year Tracy also recorded radio play “Phantom Construct” in which she played the medium, Marianne.

Films include “Scandal in ‘97” (Amazon Prime), “Foul, Evil, Deeds” (in post production), “The Worlds of Ursula K le Guin” (in which she played the rotoscoped High Priestess Tenar from the Earthsea Trilogy) (shortlisted for a Hugo Award), “28 Days Later” and “Tortoise in Love”; and many award winning shorts including “Shoal”, “Chronos”, “She’s the Stranger Here”, “The Nest”, “Savage” and “The Chihuahua Messiah”.

Creative Team

Becky Plotnek – Producer

Becky Plotnek is a creative arts producer who makes things happen. They support irreverent, joyful, experimental work that is resistant to the way things are. They are currently working with a rich mix of artists across theatre, performance art, cabaret and combined arts, including Midgitte Bardot (AKA Tammy Reynolds), An* Neely & Moa Johannsson, and Hannah Maxwell. They were co-curator for DICE Festival which was presented at Summerhall (Edinburgh Fringe) and Barbican. Becky is absolutely delighted to be co-producing JW3's first-ever pantomime.

Nick Cassenbaum - Writer

Nick is a theatre maker, performer and writer. Cutting his teeth in street theatre, he soon moved indoors, following his MA in writing for performance at Goldsmiths college. Since then, he has written and performed two solo shows, Bubble Schmeisis (The Stage ****), which has toured extensively around the UK and internationally and My Kind Of Michael (Guardian****), which has also toured the UK. Regularly collaborating with the Royal Court where he has been under commision, he is currently writing a play for the Soho Theatre. Nick also runs a community storytelling company, Take Stock Exchange, which will be releasing a podcast exploring Jewish communities across the UK in January. Nick has had a longstanding relationship with JW3, working with them since they opened their doors in 2013 and in fact, it is not Nick’s first foray in pantomime. He was 15 years old when he wrote the panto Purim Shpiel for his local Shul, and starred as Pricilla the Goose in Mother Goose at Richmond Theatre Royal in 2010. Since treading the boards in those orange flippers, he’s always wanted to return to pantomime.

Abi Anderson - Director

Abi is an award-winning director who has directed more than 100 productions, around the UK and internationally.  She first directed panto when she was an Associate Director of the Theatre Royal in Bury St Edmunds back in 2009, and has hardly missed a year doing panto somewhere since.  Besides panto, her other passions are Shakespeare (she has directed 18 of his plays so far) and adaptations of novels.  The adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for two actors which she co-created with Two Bit Classics has not only been revived several times in the UK, but three times in South Korea.  She is delighted to be directing at JW3 which she has visited often as a parent of young children, but never professionally until now.

Josh Middleton - Musical Director

Josh Middleton is a multi-instrumentalist, Composer and Musical Director specialising in Klezmer. He has worked with Klezmer ensembles She’koyokh and The London Klezmer Quartet, taught at Klezfest UK alongside Klezmer Scholars Alan Bern and Joel Rubin and performed with Frank London (The Klezmatics) and Merlin Shepherd.
He has toured extensively as Musical Director and accordionist with String Theatre (Tunisia, Turkey, Russia, Hungary, Serbia), Nick Cassenbaum’s Bubble Shmeisis (UK, USA, Malta) and his ensemble Don Kipper( to much critical acclaim: **** The Guardian, **** The Evening Standard).
Theatre Credits include Indecent (The Menier Chocolate Factory 2020, 2021)
Musical Director Credits include Watch on the Rhine (The Donmar Warehouse 2022)

Becky-Dee Trevenen - Designer

Becky-Dee Trevenen is British-Australian Theatre Designer  with experience spanning many forms of live performance, with a particular focus on physical theatre and interactive design. Working on an international scale, her work ranges from intimate one-on-one experiences, to sprawling multi-warehouse installations. 

Recent projects include: For Tangled Feet she designed dynamic, sculptural set-pieces for Butterflies (Half Moon, UK Tour) and Half Life (The Albany, Gulbenkian, Arc). For Migration Museum, she was commissioned to create two interactive installations for their 2020 exhibition Departures; And for Kings Head Theatre designed the West End transfer of Strangers In Between, The Offie-winning production of Tosca and the Olivier-nominated production of La Boheme.

She frequently works with immersive theatre pioneers Punchdrunk and Punchdrunk Enrichment, most recently, as the Head of Set Dressing on The Burnt City and is currently a Designer Mentor and Workshop Leader for Punchdrunk Enrichment. 

Becky-Dee completed a Bachelor of Dramatic Art at NIDA in Sydney, Australia in 2014 where she was awarded the William Fletcher Foundation Award and was the Big Brother Movement Drama Scholar in 2015.

 

The Band

Josh Middleton

Anna Lowenstein

Maxie Cheer

Panto Programme by Oliver Marcus
Arts Council England Logo

Please note

Child's tickets under 16

Under 2s do not require a ticket

Lower ticket prices apply for performances between 11–23 December and 2–7 January. Higher ticket prices apply between 24–31 December.

A booking fee of £2 will be added to all orders.

Dates - -

£24/£28 per adult, £15/£18 per child

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